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Florida executes serial killer after four-hour delay

Oscar Ray Bolin Jr., convicted of killing three women in the Tampa Bay area in 1986, was executed via lethal injection Thursday night after a four-hour delay.

The U.S. Supreme Court was reviewing a last-minute appeal for a stay past the scheduled execution time of 6 p.m., until justices denied the 53-year-old's appeal just before 10 p.m. The lethal injection cocktail started flowing into Bolin at 10:05 p.m., according to the Tampa Bay Times, and 11 minutes later he was pronounced dead. He did not have any last words, and his last meal consisted of a rib-eye steak, baked potato, salad, garlic bread, lemon meringue pie and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

The Times reports Bolin was tried and found guilty 10 separate times for the murders of 25-year-old Natalie Blanche Holley, 17-year-old Stephanie Collins and 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews. All three women were found stabbed to death, and two had their heads bludgeoned. In Matthews' case, Bolin's half-brother testified Bolin woke him up and showed him a body wrapped in a sheet that made a whimpering nose.

"He said his older brother claimed it was a woman who had been shot in a drug deal outside the Land O'Lakes post office," the Times says. "Phillip Bolin said he watched his brother try to drown her with a garden hose and beat her with a wood club."

Bolin was also connected by officials to a murder in Texas, where he kidnapped and raped a 30-year-old woman before strangling her.